Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826) was the third president of the United States and the foremost author of the 1776 declaration of independence. This, possibly the most important document in America’s history, opens with a very powerful line. Applying to exclusively white Americans wishing to escape the British rule, this phrase attracted a lot of criticism at the time of its publication due to the hypocrisy of the men who wrote it- the men who rallied for American independence yet kept overworked, cruelly kept black slaves.